New bail set for suspect in fatal VFW brawl

NEW BEDFORD — A Superior Court judge set $150,000 cash bail Tuesday for a city man charged with murder for his alleged role during a fatal brawl last year outside a Fairhaven VFW.

BRIAN FRAGA

NEW BEDFORD — A Superior Court judge set $150,000 cash bail Tuesday for a city man charged with murder for his alleged role during a fatal brawl last year outside a Fairhaven VFW.

Thomas Opozda, 21, is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 16.

He is charged with murder, armed assault with intent to murder, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Prosecutors allege Opozda stabbed Robert Williams of Fairhaven twice with a pocketknife as the victim tried to break up a brawl outside the Veterans of Foreign Wars post on April 5, 2008.

Opozda allegedly gave the knife to Brandon Callender, 19, who allegedly stabbed Joshua Fitzgerald, 30, of Fairhaven. Fitzgerald later died at St. Luke's Hospital.

During the brawl, Patrick Fitzgerald, Joshua's brother, also was stabbed.

He and Williams, a friend of the Fitzgerald brothers, were flown to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

Police said Callender later returned the knife to Opozda, who allegedly threw the weapon into bushes near Middle Street.

Opozda was arrested four days after the brawl and has been incarcerated since then.

He is charged with murder via a joint venture theory that he acted in concert with Callender.

Opozda originally was ordered held without bail, and subsequently sentenced to a one-year jail sentence for violating the terms of his probation from a prior assault and battery case.

He recently finished serving that sentence.

During a bail hearing Tuesday, prosecutors sought for Opozda again to be held without bail. Defense lawyer J. Drew Segadelli requested $5,000 bail.

Judge Frances A. McIntyre set bail at $150,000.

Meanwhile, Callender's case is pending. Earlier this month, Judge Robert J. Kane ordered his statements to police on the night of his arrest to be suppressed because a police officer questioned Callender after he had already told police he did not want to talk.

According to court records, the officer approached Callender a half-hour after the defendant had told another officer that he did not wish to speak.

However, Callender changed his mind and said he would speak to the police.

He waived his Miranda rights and gave a statement about the incident.

Kane said police should not have approached Callender because he had already refused to talk.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office has appealed Kane's order to suppress Callender's statement.